As of this month, Napster will no longer be providing music downloads to Penn State’s 24 campuses; instead, the university has chosen to work with rival digital entertainment service Ruckus Network, the AP reports. The Napster partnership was the first of its kind when it was announced in November 2003 and was initiated, in part, to try to combat music piracy among students. Students got legal access to streaming music as well as limited downloads through the Napster 2.0 service and could permanently download a copy for a compact disc or portable device for 99 cents a song.
But Ruckus is cheaper and promises a greater array of features, such as movie downloads and other video. Penn State had funded Napster through student fees, which came on top of the 99-cent download fees paid directly by students. With Ruckus, students will still pay for permanent downloads, but the university won’t have to bear any other costs. A number of other schools, including the University of Rochester, Cornell, and Middlebury College, followed Penn State’s lead in signing up Napster, but more recently, the company seemed to shift its focus away from cultivating a campus clientele, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Other companies like Ruckus and Cdigix
Comments have been disabled for this post